In this episode of Elixir, Helen is talking to Chen Du about ‘At Home’ by a modern Chinese poet, Zuo You
Text of the poem:
《家中》
左右 （杜琛 陈锡生译）
日历掩上断了角的柴门。新年将近
年兽打着嗤嗤的呼噜声
外婆的脸上露出油桐的笑容，和着煮茶声
落下一地灰烬，落下
一首大于雪的诗。它开出妖艳的花瓣
冬天的激情也在肆意燃烧
这睡眼惺忪的凌晨！大雪已经侵尽故乡最后的疆域
厨门刚刚虚开。雀鸟闻声，与阡陌乡野渐靠渐拢
雪在午后，越下越响
炉火越烧越旺。炊烟扫开一条白茫茫的天路……
这些愈走愈新的路啊
此时，此刻，紧紧贴着大地幸福的颤动
Translation of the poem
The calendar has gently closed the broken-cornered wooden gate
With the approaching Chinese New Year
The man-eating monster is snoring with a whistle
A smile like a tung tree blooms on Grandma’s face
In harmony with the sound of brewing tea
She has dropped ashes all over the ground, dropped
A poem more magnificent than the snowfall
With enchanting blossoming petals
Winter’s passion is also wildly burning
On this bleary-eyed morning
The blizzard has occupied my hometown’s last territory
The kitchen door has just been set ajar at the sound
Finches approach over the crisscrossing paths of the countryside
Mid-afternoon snow is falling louder and louder
And the stove fire burns hotter and hotter
With smoke sweeping out a whitish trail in the firmament…
Oh the paths that are newer the more they are trodden
Are trembling with joy while clinging to the earth
At this very moment
Translated by Xisheng Chen and Chen Du
https://paper-republic.org/pubs/read/at-home/
About the poet:
https://paper-republic.org/pers/zuo-you/
https://u.osu.edu/mclc/bibliographies/lit/translations-aut/y-z/#Z
Bio of the poet: Zuo (family name) You (given name)
Zuo You is a handicapped poet based in Xi’an, China. He has published nineteen books including six full-length poetry collections in China, e.g., Kismet and Subway. His poems have been translated into various languages and appeared in some major literary magazines in North America, Canada, the UK, Japan, Korea and elsewhere, such as The Paris Review, The Malahat Review, and Modern Poetry in Translation. In China, he is also the winner of several major literary awards, such as The Fourth Liu Qing Literary Award. Suffering from hearing impairment, he speaks only a few simple words. He has been honored “Good Person” by Shaanxi Provincial Government several times and has taught poetry writing and Chinese to 100,000+ students. A set of poems by him titled “Deaf Person” which is translated by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen was shortlisted by Ugly Duckling Presse in its 2021 First Translation selection.
About the Translators:
Bios of the translators: Chen (given name) Du (family name) and Xisheng (given name) Chen (family name)
Chen Du is a voting member of the American Translators Association and an expert member of the Translators Association of China with a Master’s Degree in Biophysics from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, SUNY at Buffalo and a Master’s Degree in Radio Physics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the United States and a few other Western countries, she has published 150+ pieces of English translations, poems, and essays in more than fifty literary journals. A set of five poems from Yan An’s poetry collection Rock Arrangement which was co-translated by her and Xisheng Chen won the 2021 Zach Doss Friends in Letters Memorial Fellowship. Yan An’s poetry book, A Naturalist’s Manor, translated by her and Xisheng Chen was published by Chax Press and shortlisted (one of four titles) for the 2022 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, administered by the American Literary Translators Association. Contact her at of_sea@hotmail.com.
Xisheng Chen, a Chinese American, is an ESL grammarian, lexicologist, linguist, translator and educator. His educational background includes: top scorer in the English subject in the National College Entrance Examination of Jiangsu Province, a BA and an MA from Fudan University, Shanghai, China (exempted from the National Graduate School Entrance Examination owing to excellent BA test scores), and a Mandarin Healthcare Interpreter Certificate from the City College of San Francisco, CA, USA. His working history includes: translator for Shanghai TV Station, Evening English News, lecturer at Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China, adjunct professor at the Departments of English and Social Sciences of Trine University (formerly Tri-State University), Angola, Indiana, notary public, and contract high-tech translator for Futurewei Technologies, Inc. in Santa Clara, California, USA. As a translator for over three decades, he has published many translations in various fields in newspapers and journals in China and abroad.
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